Rosa Parks Remembered

Longtime NAACP activist Anita Davis has worked for years in Tallahassee to better the lives of others, the awards on her wall even drawing comparisons to Civil Rights icon Rosa Parks.

Anita Davis says, "It used to tickle me when people would say, ‘well, you’re the Rosa Parks of this area,’ and I said, ‘no, I’m not. I’m one of her sisters or her daughter and I’m there to promote what she started,’ and never stopped."

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "Rosa Parks was arrested because she refused to give up her seat for a white passenger."

Her defiance on December 1 of 1955 inspired multiple bus boycotts and an entire movement, even here in Tallahassee. Rev. C.K. Steele led a bus boycott in the 50's after a similar incident like Park's.

Rev. Bernyce Causell says, "Perhaps if Rosa Parks had not given up her seat, the young lady that was one the bus that Sunday morning, maybe she wouldn't have done anything about her place either."

Parks’ passing has those who knew her personally remembering her legacy.

Davis adds, "She was one of those silent warriors, people who got things done without a whole lot of hoopla, and her concerns for people were overwhelming and I think that one of things that really played a part in my wanting to be like her."

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